Joe Maddon despises Rob Manfred's changes to the game - with one glaring exception

Since getting fired by the Angels during the 2022 season, former Chicago Cubs skipper Joe Maddon hasn't shied away from the spotlight, regularly making his thoughts on the state of the game well-known.

This week, he sat down with former big leaguer Mark Trumbo and longtime former LA sportswriter Mike DiGiovanna at Halo Territory in an interview that covered, among many other topics, baseball's recent rule changes - including larger bases, three-batter minimums and the infamous 'ghost runner'.

Safe to say, Maddon isn't a fan.

The point he makes is valid. This streamlining of baseball in the interest of cutting down game times has, in my opinion, led to a 'dumbing down' of the final product. There's no more mixing and matching late in the game with relievers, and the days of manufacturing runs feel like a thing of the distant past, with universal DH now the status quo in both leagues.

He recalled Miguel Montero's iconic pinch-hit grand slam in the 2016 NLCS as the type of decision managers no longer have to make because, in case you forgot, Montero pinch hit for Aroldis Chapman there. Today, there's no punch-hitting for pitchers because... well, they don't hit.

Maddon also believes the recent rule changes have allowed organizations to tap managers with little to no experience to fill vacancies because there are fewer intricacies to understand in terms of in-game decision-making. We saw that trend continue this offseason with hirings like Tony Vitello in San Francisco and Kurt Suzuki with the Angels.

This piggybacks on statements Maddon previously made, accusing front offices across the league of hiring doers instead of thinkers - something he obviously feels strongly about given how his time as an MLB manager drew to an unceremonious close (and the lack of interest in his services in the years that followed).

Joe Maddon admits the pitch clock was a necessary change

While laying waste to many of the changes baseball has seen during Rob Manfred's tenure, Maddon admitted that the pitch clock and the corresponding adoption of PitchCom have improved the pace of play, which, in his mind, has been the biggest issue - not length of game.

Pitchers taking the better part of a minute between pitches did nobody any good. I think we can all agree with that. Pretty much everyone around the game, though, will probably take Maddon's comments with a grain of salt, given his scorched-earth approach since leaving the game. He's constantly criticized the game over the last few years, rarely offering a positive comment on the direction its gone.

Maddon pretty clearly craves the game of yesteryear, and that's fine. But baseball has changed, for better or worse, and I don't envision a scenario where the league backtracks on its decisions, even when Manfred's reign ends in a few years.